Beth and Tim met the old-fashioned way. No, the really old-fashioned way through her father! While both of them were attending ASU in 2015 Tim worked the front desk at the Residence Inn Tempe. Naturally, you develop favorite guests. One of those favorites was the Rosenbergs, who were regulars who would come down to visit their daughter, Beth. Following the natural course of things, Beth came to visit her parents at the hotel. Where she was introduced to Tim. We now have both sides of the story of that meeting. Tim: “ Wow she definitely is her father's daughter, except for those massive… right, eye contact. She is amazingly well spoken, and I can feel the passion coming out of her as she talks about wanting to be a therapist. Right, don’t flirt, she is your favorite guest kid, and that is a great way to ruin a friendship.” Beth “Ugh this old man is obsessed with me!” Needless to say it was not love at first sight. So much so that Beth would go out of her way to avoid Tim if she saw him on campus. All while Denis and Rebecca would tease her about how she should date Tim or that Tim says “Hiiiiiiiiiiii”. This led to Beth aggressively wanting nothing to do with him. Fast forward to Jan 2019, and Tim reaches out to Denis for advice. While on that call, Tim, out of pure politeness, asks after Beth and her well-being. And they set plans to meet up for dinner next time Denis is in town. Commence the normal teasing of Beth. “Oh, Beth, we talked to Tim, and he asked about you… twice!” Beth “Uh, I would go out on a date with Tim.” We are still trying to pick Denis and Rebbeca’s jaws off the group to this day. After that Beth took it upon herself to make sure that dinner happened. By pure happenstance, the only day that worked out for everyone to meet was Feb 14th. The reservation was for 5. In Tim’s mind: Him, Denis, Rebecca, Beth, and Beth’s Boyfriend. Nope, Grandma had come along, and Beth was way dressed up. We sat down, and it just so happened that the seating arrangement put Beth and Tim right next to one another. As the meal proceeded, Beth tactfully threw herself at Tim with vigor and clear intent. The longer the meal went on, the more nervous Tim became, since the fastest way to ruin a mentorship relationship is to sleep with his daughter. One of the conversations that came up during that fateful dinner was Tim’s love of swing dancing, and without thinking, he mentioned that should Beth ever want to- “I would love to go! What time?”

Beth likes to partly joke that she is so queer that she U-Haul-ed a straight man. Beth and Tim started dating in February of 2020. Right around that time, another small event happened. So, a month into dating, the government told everyone to shelter in place. It would be a maximum of 2 weeks, they claimed. We figure it would be at least a month, but maybe 2 tops. Well, we were in the fun early stage of the relationship, bouncing between each other's place. We figure we may as well shelter in place together, it would be a lot more fun that way. Beth’s place was chosen since she has a cat, and my place had a very firm no-cat rule. It would only be for a month anyway. Around November, Tim asked why I was paying rent at my place when I hadn’t been there in months. That is how Beth and Tim have only lived together throughout there entirety of their entire relationship (Other than a brief stint long distance when Tim was working in Texas.)

Beth knew it was coming. She knew that her diamond was going to be, the same one that Tim’s grandfather and great-grandfather had used. She knew what it was going to be set in as she had been there when it had been picked out. She knew that Tim had set himself a deadline to ask before the end of 2025. She even knew where Tim was keeping her ring in the apartment that they shared. The one thing she didn’t know was… WHY THE FUCK WAS IT TAKING SO LONG!!! Tim had a small list of things that were needed for the proposal: He wanted to buy the ring with earned income (Which turned out to be the major delay. Long COVID made that take years to meet.) Both of Beth’s best friends and family needed to be present. It is a planned with intent not spur-of-the-moment. A small list frequently makes for big problems. After meeting the first item on the list, the next real challenge became the second. Beth has two best friends, Jess and Nisha. Getting Jess there was easy. The issue was that Nisha lives in SF. Luckily, she always comes home for the holidays. Once Nisha had set her dates, two days were open. Next intent, Oak Park there is a small public garden, Gardens of the World. It has a variety of different styles of gardens. (If you are wondering what it looked like, see the photo gallery tab. We did our engagement shoot there.) Finally, the plan comes together on Dec 30th (I did say before the end of 2025, didn’t I). Now, if any of you remember anything about the weather around that time, SoCal was making national news for just how wet it was. It was the rainiest November and December on record. But through divine luck, the 30th was going to be dry. We had a plan in place where Beth and Tim had been invited by Nisha to hang out for an event at the Gardens of the World. Afterwards, there was a reservation at the wine bar right next door for us all to celebrate. Then it turned out that the weatherman had lied, and the rain came down. So the call was made to cancel and try again. Beth, who had a bit more than a mild inkling that she was going to be propositioned for a major life choice that day, had gone to work dressed to kill with a full face of makeup on. Returned to the house with makeup ruined and smudged from crying in the car. Tim sat her down to break down the whole plan as they cried through the loss in pure mocking jest, the sun briefly came out for the first time in days. Beth was certain now that she had been told of the the list that it wasn’t happening anytime soon. Jess was leaving that night for the New Year event, and Nisha was going home before Jess returned. While the girls were sent out for a night of drinking, Tim began to do what he does best. Tim began to scheme and warp schedules. Unbeknownst to everyone, there was a window, a small window, on the night of Jan 3rd. It would take careful planning and a heroic effort by Jess and her (very sick) boyfriend to drive 6 hours down a snow-covered mountain in a storm. The day of Beth’s father called Beth and Tim to go test out a new dish at a family friend’s restaurant, Pearl District. Since Pearl District is on par with Michelin-star restaurants, Beth and Tim decided to dress up and make a date night out of it. Also totally normally they were running late, strangely it was Tim’s fault. Also like he was buying time. A very irritated Beth walked into the restaurant and started storming to the back, looking for her family. Yet they weren’t in the right spot… and wait, why were there a lot more people there than there should be? As Beth turned around to ask Tim what was going on. As he went to his knee and started his speech. Beth’s mind was completely in such a state of shock that she could not hear any of it, but much to her credit, she did manage to get “Yes” out when it truly mattered!